Cakes & Bakes: Fruit and nut soda bread

This week has been quite busy, so today’s Cakes & Bakes is going to reflect this – it’s a fruit and nut soda bread loaf. Soda bread is delicious. It’s not an emergency or last resort loaf, but having said that, it’s a real godsend if pushed for time.

It was my birthday on Tuesday, so I had a lovely lie-in while Justin took the dog for a walk. In the afternoon, he took me for a pub lunch locally at the Staff of Life.

We stayed indoors during the evening but we shared a bottle of bubbly and caught up on some Scandi drama on television.

Yesterday, I went into Manchester city centre for yet another after-birthday lunch with a friend. Alas, after the whirlwind couple of days of being wined & dined, I’m getting back into the daily work schedule…

Fruit and nut soda bread

2018-07-23 19:03:00

Yields 1

Cook Time

40 min

Cook Time

40 min

Ingredients

350g/12oz plain flour
50g/1¾oz wheatgerm
1tsp salt
1½tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp cream of tartar

2tbsp caster sugar

40g/1½oz cold butter, cubed

250g/9oz buttermilk
50g/1¾oz currants
50g/1¾oz chopped walnuts

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Instructions

Preheat the oven and grease a 450g/1lb loaf tin
In a large mixing bowl, add flour, wheatgerm, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar and sugar and mix
Rub in the butter
Make a well in the centre of the mixture and pour in the buttermilk
Using a bring the mixture towards the middle, mixing until it just comes together into a ball of dough
Add the currants and walnuts and knead just a few times until the fruit and nuts are evenly distributed throughout the dough
Form into a loaf shape, add to the tin and make a single deep cut along the long side
Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is golden and the bottom sounds hollow when knocked
Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing and eating

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Roman bread

I had about 250g of wholegrain spelt flour languishing in the store cupboard for months. There wasn’t really enough of it to make anything by itself so I combined it with some plain, strong bread flour to make a version of Roman bread.

Roman bread – as you may guess – is apparently a recipe found in the Apicius – an 4th century cookbook. It’s a simple, rustic loaf consisting of spelt flour, water, yeast, honey and olive oil.

Spelt is an ancient grain that would have been common at the time the Apicus was written. It fell out of favour in the 19th century but, mainly because of its lower gluten content, it’s growing in popularity once more.

Spelt dough requires more liquid, but doesn’t need to be kneaded or proved for as long as regular wheat flour – which is an advantage if you’re pushed for time!

I would have thought that the yeast originally used would have been of the wild variety, made using grape must.

I may attempt to make an ‘authentic’ Roman bread soon – using a pre-ferment, 100% spelt flour and will form the loaf into a traditional round rather than use a tin. I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Roman bread

Doves Farm

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Cook Time 45

Course Bread

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

250 g wholegrain spelt flour
250 g strong bread flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp quick yeast
1 tbsp honey
400 ml warm water
1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/fan 180ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and quick yeast
Dissolve the honey in the water and roughly mix it into the flour
While the dough is still craggy add the oil and mix well
Knead or work the dough for a few minutes then divide between two 500g/1lb bread tins
Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about 25 minutes
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes

Keyword bread, yeasted bread

Cakes & Bakes: Muesli loaf

It’s a lovely, rustic bloomer for this week’s Cakes & Bakes. It’s made with oats, seeds, nuts and dried fruit – hence the name muesli loaf.

Use whatever you have in the cupboard or pantry – it’s actually a great way for using up half packets of things you might have left over from other recipes.

We included flaked almonds, sesame seeds and golden linseeds in ours.

We do think that some dried fruit is a vital ingredient though. A hearty loaf punctuated by the subtle sweetness of the fruit works really well – as well as the sultanas that we added, you could try using figs, dates, raisins, dried apricots or cranberries… or a mixture!

It’s delicious on its own with butter… but also has lots of potential partners such as cured meats, cheese, honey and jams.

In the same way that blue cheese and digestive biscuits are a match made in heaven, so was our muesli bread & dolcelatte combination – a real winner!

Pin in from here for later!

Muesli loaf

Quick, nutritious and tasty loaf

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Prep Time 2 20

Cook Time 30

Total Time 2 50

Course Bread

Cuisine British

Ingredients

10 g/ ⅓oz instant dried yeast
1 tsp sugar optional
600 ml warm water
500 g/17½oz plain flour
400 g/14oz wholemeal flour
100 g/3½oz porridge or rolled oats
75 g/2⅔oz mixed nuts & seeds
100 g/3½oz dried fruit
5 g/¹⁄₁₆oz salt

Instructions

In a large measuring jug, add the yeast to the warm water. If your yeast needs a bit of help, stir in a teaspoon of sugar to the mixture
In a large mixing bowl, add all the dry ingredients and combine. Make a well in the centre
Once the yeast mixture has begun to bubble, pour into the well of the dry ingredients
Bring the mixture together with your hands or dough scraper until a large ball is formed
Empty out the dough ball on to a lightly floured work surface and knead for a good 10 minutes
Put the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover with cling film and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (about an hour)
Empty out the dough back onto the lightly floured work surface, knock back and form into a bloomer shape before placing on a large, well-greased baking tray
Allow to prove again, covered in cling film, in a warm place for another hour
Preheat the oven to 250ºC/475ºF/Gas mark 9
Score the top of the loaf diagonally a few times before putting into the hot oven
After 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 6
Cook for a further 20 minutes until the top becomes golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when knocked
Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing and enjoying!

Keyword bread, fruit bread, muesli

Cakes & Bakes: Black bread

We recently bought a box of mixed ephemera at auction.

There were quite a few vintage calendars in the box including this charming Esso calendar dating from 1958. Each month is represented by a traditional activity for the time of year…

…and on the reverse is a recipe from a different county of the UK. I liked the sound of the black bread from Buckinghamshire so decided to test it out for this week’s Cakes & Bakes. I’m not sure whether it actually hails from Buckinghamshire or not, I couldn’t find any mention of a ‘Buckinghamshire black bread’ on the internet anywhere. Have you ever heard of it?

From its list of ingredients, I presumed it would be a sweet bread, perfect for having with an afternoon cup of tea.

It was really easy to rustle up, I already had everything in the store cupboard. It was quick too, no waiting for the dough to rise; just mix, into a tin and in the oven – job done!

I’ve changed the original cooking temperature and duration. The top began to look a little too ‘black’ and it was definitely fully cooked after an hour.

It’s reminiscent of malt loaf but less sticky and more… ‘treacley’! We had a few slices with a healthy layering of butter – divine!

If you fancy giving this recipe a try you can pin it from here for later!

Black bread

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 15

Course Bread

Cuisine British

Servings 1 small loaf

Ingredients

450 g/1lb wholemeal flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
300 ml/½pt milk
1 egg
300 ml/½pt black treacle
225 g/8oz dried fruit I used sultanas

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease a 1kg/2lb loaf tin
In a large mixing bowl, sift the salt and bicarbonate with the flour
Mix in the milk, egg and treacle before adding the dried fruit
Pour the mixture into the greased loaf tin and bake for about an hour. If the top begins to look too dark, cover with tin foil
Turn out on to a wire rack to cool

The original recipe says that this bread is best left for a month before cutting & consuming. We couldn't wait that long!

Keyword bread